The republican roman legion

The Field of Mars, named after the god of war, was the symbol of Roman military, the place where legions were raised, trained and held their military triumph after a successful campaign. The two-kilometre-wide floodplain of the River Tiber had no buildings except a small altar of Mars. The campus was the muster and training area of the Roman army during the Along with the expansion of Rome, victorious generals built various temples, monuments and theatres, transforming the campus into a collection of trophies and gradually changing its military role into an area that made a social and military statement. In the 6th century BC, King Servius Tullius held the first census, assembling all land-owning citizens of Rome by tribe in the Campus Martius, in order to register their property and income. The census established the classes based on wealth, which formed the structure of both Rome's society and army. Following the model of its time, the early Roman army was based on an annual citizens' levy and structured into income-based military classes. The constant military activity and gradual expansion of Rome led to an increased need in manpower. Towards the 3rd century BC, the infantry classes based on wealth were slowly replaced with ones based on age and military experience, thus enlarging the base of recruitment for the Roman army. Polybius describes how the legions were levied and structured during this period. The two elected consuls of Rome required all to assemble on the Capitolina, arranged by tribe for the Delectus, the annual levy of troops. Groups of four men were selected from each tribe and brought forward in front of the tribunes of the four legions. Each of the tribunes picked a man, assigning him to one of the four legions. The process was repeated until all legions were filled with 4,200 men respectively. Another 300 men for each legion were selected from the wealthiest class to form the equities, the Roman cavalry. The skirmishers, slingers or archers represented the lowest military class in every ancient army, troops that could not afford a proper fighting panoply. During mid-republic, the Roman army united all those classes under the velites, formed by the youngest and poorest citizens, wearing no armor at all, except a bronze helmet and sometimes a wolfskin as a sign of recognition. Armed with a round palmer shield and javelins, the 1,200 velites had the task to skirmish and harass the enemy prior to the engagements. Three classes of heavy infantry formed the body of the Roman legion. The hastati, the youngest and least experienced troops among the infantry class, formed the first infantry line. They were armed with a gladius sword and two throwing pila. The hastati were lightly armored, carrying a large scutum shield, a helmet and a bronze square breastplate covering their chest. 1,200 hastati were divided in 10 maniples of 120 men each. The second infantry line, organized in the same manner, formed by middle-aged men, was the principes. Armed in the same manner as the hastati, with sword and throwing javelins, the principes had slightly better armor. They were usually equipped with the lorica hamata chainmail. The most aged and experienced were chosen to form the triarii. Armed with a hastath spear, a gladius sword and a large scutum, the triarii could afford the best armor and were considered the last line of defense of the Roman legion. Because those troops were used as a last resort in a battle situation, the expression ad trios redis, falling on the triarii, became a common Roman phrase, indicating one to be in a desperate situation. 600 triarii were in every legion, in 10 maniples of 60 men each. The cavalry force of the legion was comprised of 300 equities, chosen from the wealthy class of Roman citizens, divided into 10 terma, armed with a long spear and a small palmar shield. The equities were assigned a support role, since the Roman military doctrine was mainly based around the infantry. 4,500 men in total formed a legion, 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry, although there were times when this number was increased up to 5,000. Each of the two consuls had the command of two legions, which formed a consular army. Four legions and two consular armies was the standard strength of the Roman Republic. In times of emergency, elders and slaves of freedmen were conscripted into service to raise the number of legions. The flexible Roman military system allowed them to constantly adapt their tactics and weaponry as a result of clashes with the various war-like cultures. Much of the Roman equipment is actually of foreign origin, incorporated by Rome to their fighting system. The Greek-type swords used by the early legions were gradually replaced by the which became the standard Roman sword around the 3rd century BC. With a 60 cm long, double-edged, straight blade, the gladius was ideal for quick, short stabbings from behind the large scutum. While being capable of delivering effective slash hits, the sword remained in service for a few centuries until the imperial reforms. The hasta, Latin word for spear, was the primary weapon used by the triarii. Resembling the Greek spear dory, the hasta was a 2 meters long thrusting spear with an iron head. The hasta was eventually scrapped along with the Marian reforms from 107 BC. The short leaf-shaped blade dagger, pugio, was the sidearm of all Roman soldiers. Like the gladius, the pugio was in the panoply of all military classes. Although it was also the weapon of choice for assassinations, including the famous stabbing of Julius Caesar in the Senate. The pilum, a heavy javelin used by the Roman infantry, was primarily used to disrupt enemy formations right before the charge. With its 60 cm long, 7 mm thin iron shaft and a small pyramid-shaped point, the pilum had great penetration power. It is believed the pilum was designed to penetrate and bend on impact, rendering enemy shields useless, although this view is disputed. According to Polybius, two pylor types were available to the hastati and principes, one heavier than the other, to use as a thrusting spear or defense against cavalry, as it is described in the Battle of Pharsalos or the Siege of Alessia. Due to its efficiency, the pilum remained in service after the Marian reforms. It was eventually replaced during the imperial age. The light javelins used by the velites had a similar design as the pilum. It was smaller in size, roughly 1.1 meters long. Up to 7 veruta could be carried by each velite in combat and were occasionally thrown using a strap called a mentum. The round wood shields were mainly used by velites, although cavalry used a similar version, the palma equestris. About 90 cm in diameter, the palma had iron in its frame and also an iron shield boss called umbro, protecting the handgrip. The scutum, used by the Italic tribes, was adopted by the Romans around 4th century BC, when the early phalanx system was replaced with a manipular one. Around 1 meter in height and 40 cm wide, the rectangle curved shield was made from three layers of wood. They were glued together at right angles and were covered with an outside layer of leather, which was painted with various motifs. An iron rim held the shield in place, giving it extra protection against lateral blows and an iron boss in the center of the shield. Most common among the armors in use during the republican period was the lorica hamata, a chainmail probably adopted from Gaulic or Iberic tribes. It was made of iron rings that allowed for relatively easy movements, while offering good protection. The troops who could not afford this used a simple bronze plate, which was placed on the tunic to offer some form of chest protection. Greaves were also used to protect the legs. Some soldiers wore only one greave on the left foot, the one nearest to the enemy. The so-called Montefittino helmet was considered to be the common helmet in use during republican times. Of Celtic origins, the Montefittino had a conical or round shape with a raised knob and cheek plates to protect the sides of the head. A similar version, also of Celtic influence, was the Coulis helmet. During the Samnite Wars in the 4th century BC, Rome decided to change the rigid Greek phalanx-based legion with a more flexible system, which was more appropriate for battles in the mountainous rugged terrain of the Samium region. Influenced by the mobile fighting unit system of their Samnite enemies, the Romans adapted it to the three lines manipular system. Triplex Achilles, Latin for three lines, is the term used to describe the republican manipular legion fighting tactic. The maniples deployed in three battle lines arranged in a checkboard formation. The tactical building block that ensured success of the Triplex Achilles was the maniple, a small unit of 120 men, called comanipulares, commanded by two centurions, each in charge of 60 men. The various fighting formations usually associated with the later Marian legions were most likely in use as well in the manipular legion as some of Levi's battle descriptions suggest. In the Testudo formation, the first row brought up their shields aligned, while the next ranks raised their shields, creating a closed back formation to protect the soldiers of missile fire from all sides. The wedge, a common tactic among ancient armies, assumed the maniple advancing in a v-shaped formation, meant to break an enemy line. Repellia Equites, Latin for repel cavalry, was the formation used to defend against the cavalry charge. The first row would kneel, holding their peeler as spears between their shield, and the second row would raise their shields and peeler to create a defensive pike wall. A common tactic widely considered was the men rotating within the unit. The ranks switched their positions during the battle, in order to avoid prolonged battle fatigue. The first rank would disengage and retreat in the back of the maniple, while the second rank advanced in its place. Within the maniple, according to Polybius's description, each man had three square feet available to fight. The large scutum shield provided enough individual protection for each soldier, offering a degree of individual freedom to maneuver. This allowed the maniple to rotate a single row in order to defend its flank and still keep their formation without the need to rotate the whole unit in order to meet an attack. Those factors made the maniple a more independent unit, giving the Roman Legion more tactical options during both the advance and engagement phase. With no constraint of keeping a long fixed line formation, the Roman Legion had a distinct mobility advantage on rough terrain over the phalanx system, whose ability to maneuver and keep its formation was very restricted, as the Battle of Cenocephalae or Pitna illustrates. Ancient sources depict various moments where a Parts of the army could easily disengage and redirect to different battle points, reform and readjust the triplex acies during battle without endangering the battle line. During the Iberian campaigns from the late 3rd century BC, the terrain and guerrilla fighting style of the Iberic tribes proved the maniple to be too light for certain situations. This led to small combined mobile forces of three maniples, one of each category, and the support of some volites. Those are mentioned by Livy and Polybius as cohorts, three maniples of 400-500 soldiers of combined arms that worked together as an individual group. The cohorts slowly started to be used in the Roman army, eventually becoming a standard unit of the Roman Legion in 107 BC, when the Marian reforms took place. The manipula legion was battle-tested against various fighting styles, acting over the centuries as Rome's last line of defense against the Italic tribes or invaders from outside of the Italic peninsula, like Pyrrhus and Hannibal. Although it suffered its share of defeats, the manipula system always prevailed in the end, securing Rome's survival in times of need, contributing to Rome's expansion as a regional power, paving the way for the later Marian legions, the famous Roman military machine that created the Roman Empire.